Increasingly the public is going on-line for a variety of transactions and information. More than 30% of the population have personal computers and modems. Furthermore, over 60% of people with bank accounts have personal computers and modems. At the same time the number of people subscribing and using on-line services is greater than 40 million, and this number is growing at an exponential rate.
As the public uses computers with a greater frequency, more financial transactions are being automated and performed via computer. There is good motivation to bank on-line. On-line banking provides convenience, safety, cost savings, and potentially new types of services not readily or conveniently available via in-person banking. Such potentially new services include access to superior up-to-the minute information, on-line investment clubs, information filters, and search agents.
With the increase in the number of financial transactions performed on-line, the convenience and cost-savings of banking on-line also increases. Additionally new and more powerful methods are being developed for protecting the security of financial transactions performed on-line. The result is that convenience, cost savings and enhanced security have combined to make on-line financial services more useful and effective, thereby driving the development of newer and more integrated services. More sophisticated financial systems that offer greater integration and a high degree of user control enable on-line users to synthesize, monitor, and analyze a wide array of financial transactions and personal financial data.
Currently, methods exist for users to perform a variety of on-line financial transactions, but these methods do not offer integrated personal financial accounting. For example, users may bank on-line, thereby enabling performance of transactions, such as transfers from one account to another. Additionally users may perform transactions on-line, such as stock or mutual fund purchases. In these approaches, users are able to perform certain basic financial transactions.
Additionally, methods exist for users to perform computerized personal financial accounting via a variety of personal financial software applications. These methods do not offer the user the ability to integrate on-line performance of financial transactions. For example, these software applications help users to categorize and keep track of financial expenses, tax information, or financial transactions. Generally these software applications require that users enter this financial information after such information has been recorded and collected by the user in a checkbook, accounting book, or another software application or to receive downloads. This includes downloads from different institutions with differing conventions, categories and level of detail.
Therefore, there is no existing system that effectively integrates performance of financial transactions with financial accounting. As a result, the automated performance of financial transactions is separate and distinct from any computerized method of accounting. Thus, a user can bank on-line, but cannot easily take that transaction information and readily transfer it into a computer application for financial accounting. This makes it more difficult for users to reconcile bank statements efficiently or to quickly obtain a complete picture of their personal finances, such as monthly expenses and average monthly bank account balances.
Further, existing art methods for financial transaction performance on-line do not combine the features of tracing and monitoring transactions with an integrated financial accounting software application. Without this integration, the user cannot readily and seamlessly combine on-line banking with personal financial accounting.
Without an easy and quick way to collate financial information, consumers must rely completely on others for financial advice, or they must accept the inability to easily obtain a thorough understanding of their own financial situation. These difficulties make consumer choices about their financial future more inefficient and less informed. Therefore, a need exists for users to have a quick and efficient way to integrate all of their financial information and for such information to be distilled and analyzed efficiently and thoroughly.
A useful method of assisting the integration and analysis of information, such as financial information, is by incorporating intelligent agents into an information system. An intelligent agent is a computer program that can perform a variety of tasks for a computer user. Typically a computer user will instruct an intelligent agent to assist the user by automatically performing a function and reporting the results of that performed function and/or take an action. Intelligent agents have been used for such things as negotiating transactions on behalf of users, reducing information overload for computer users, and handling and prioritizing electronic mail on behalf of users. In each case, intelligent agents have been employed to automatically perform tasks for users that would otherwise require the users' constant and immediate attention. The result is that intelligent agents enable users to utilize time more efficiently and to obtain results and analysis quickly and without the users' constant attention to the task being performed by the intelligent agent.
One current approach of utilizing intelligent agents in an information system is to place agents in the role of finalizing, verifying, or closing a transaction. This approach employs agents within the stream of electronic commerce.
Another approach of using intelligent agents in an information system is to incorporate agents in a telephone or communications network. This method of using agents focuses on the agents that can route telephone calls or send messages through a communication system.
An example of the existing technology is Rosen, Trusted Agents for Open Electronic Commerce, U.S. Pat. No. 5,557,518. This system utilizes agents to participate in an electronic dialogue and agree on terms of payment for a product or a service or to verify a form of identification. In this system, agents are embedded in a transaction device that reviews electronic information presented by a customer for the purpose of accepting a payment or for verifying electronic identification presented by a user.
Another example of existing art is Motiwalla, An Intelligent Agent for Prioritizing E-Mail Messages (IN Inf. Resour. Manage. J., Vol. 8, no. 2, pp. 16-24, Spring 1995). This system uses an intelligent agent to follow a user's preferences and organizational considerations in presenting and prioritizing electronic mail to users.
An example of existing patented art is Andrews, et al., Communications System Using A Central Controller to Control At Least One Network and Agent System, U.S. Pat. No. 5,546,452. In this system, intelligent agents are used to interface with a network and deliver status messages to permit transmission and routing of communications signals.
None of the prior art methods utilize intelligent agents within an information system for the purpose of integrating and analyzing details of financial transactions and financial accounting across institutions, and taking appropriate actions, where the agent relieves the user of much of the routing details and learns and adapts.